Fatal oilsands explosion dark day for company, Nexen CEO says

Friday's explosion at Nexen's Long Lake facility that killed one worker and sent a second to hospital with serious burns was a dark dayfor the oilsands company, saysCEO Fang Zhi.

"Yesterday marks one of the darkest days in Nexen history," Zhi said at a news conference in Calgary Saturday.

"Standing heretoday to share this kind of information is the worst thing a CEO ever has to do," he said. "But no matter how badly we feel it pales in comparison to the pain that two of our employees' families are experiencing."

• Oilsands plant explosion near Fort McMurray leaves 1 dead, another critical

Two maintenance workers were refitting the valves on a compressor in the gas compression building in thehydrocrackerunitat 3:20 p.m. MTwhen the explosion occurred, said Ron Bailey, senior vice-president of Nexen's Canadian operations.

One worker, 52, was killed and a second, 30, was sent to hospital in critical condition. The injured worker is now in the burn unit at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton. Investigators remain on scene.

"Having a fatality or having a serious injury is our worst nightmare," Baileytold reporters."I cannot imagine the pain and devastation that this has caused for the families and for that we're sorry."

Nexenis investigating the explosion, as isOccupational Health and Safety and theAlberta Energy Regulator.

A stop-work order is in place for the facility located about 75 km south of FortMcMurray, outside the hamlet ofAnzac.

Brad Grainger, Wood Buffalo's deputy fire chief, said his crew got the call from Nexen at 4:30 p.m.

"Upon arrival we were put on standby by their fire station," he said. "Our crews actually weren't needed.The Nexen medical people removed the people that were injured and took them into the city, into the hospital.

"They had enough fire crew people on hand so we were just there to assist their needs if they needed them," he said. "As you can imagine, with a scene of this size it does take some time to manage and mitigate."

Second problem in 5 months

The explosion marksthe second time the plant has come to the attention of regulators in the last five months.

Last August,Alberta's Energy Regulatorsuspended 95 pipelines operated byat the Long Lake siteafter a pipeline owned by the companyspilled fivemillion litres of water, sand and bitumen nearby.

Baileydefended the facility's safety record.

"CNOOC (China National OffshoreOilCorp., which owns Nexen)has an extremely high standard of safety," he said.

"All I can say is that we're disappointed and we're working to improve, but we can't speculate on the cause of this accident, whether it had anything to do with our culture or not at this point in time."

The Long Lake facility can upgrade 72,000 barrels of bitumen per day. Itbegan producing crude oil in 2008.